Fade Away
by greenikat89
Summary: Oneshot: Not everyone is meant for a happy ending as Leon finds out with just a few whispered words in the rain. Sometimes at the end of the day, all you have is yourself and the fading memories of yesteryear.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything.

A/N: I'll give you a break from the light fluffy stuff with a little angsty Leon. Poor guy. Beta'd by _Novelist Pup._

Warnings: Slight A/R, possible OOC, angsting.

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The sky was a gray overcast as Leon stared down at the brightly lit town spread out below him, legs drawn up towards his chest and arms tightly clasped around them. He hadn't been in this pose since he'd been at the orphanage and Sis had gone away. He had run right out in the middle of the storm to the edge of the cliff, sitting hunched over and cradling his legs close to his body as he looked at the churning sea below, much like the emotional turmoil inside of him. The wind had howled in his ears and the rain had pelted his unprotected skin from the elements, hiding his tears from view. Leon had let it wash over him to cleanse the anger and raw hurt from his body, and only when the storm had abated did he leave to return to the orphanage, heart hardened and stormy eyes swirling with heavy emotions.

There was no storm now nor a churning sea to meet his steady gaze, only the fast paced bustle of Twilight Town as people went about their business even well late into the night. Leon didn't know what had called him to the town. He had just hopped in one of Cid's Gummi ships and set off, away from the small town and the temporary life that he no longer fit into.

Hollow Bastion had been restored to Radiant Garden and Sora had defeated the Darkness and restored the worlds. He should have been happy. This was what he had been fighting for and trying to make up for his mistakes in the past that had cost him his friends. Leon had thought, for one shining moment—when Cloud had come back from one of his long trips happier than he'd ever been—that he could find some peace too. The blond haired man had defeated Sephiroth and his world had been restored, he'd talked about facing his past and meeting up with friends that he had thought were gone forever.

He had gone off to his world to make amends with his past, taking Tifa with him in his endeavor. The last Leon had heard, the two were married and were running a bar/delivery service with a little spiky haired kid well on their way.

If Cloud had found his happiness, then it gave Leon hope that he could go home to his world too. He'd searched, Hyne did he search, for even a person from his home world. He'd spent months on a Gummi ship hopping from world to world for a hint of his past and every world he'd come up with there was nothing. After a year he'd returned to Radiant Garden empty handed with a heart, he had thought was lost long ago, heavy with loss and utter defeat. There was nothing left of his world and there was nothing for Radiant Garden now that he wasn't needed anymore to help restore the town. He had nothing left.

Leon let out a tired sigh as the clock tower chimed midnight and let his hands fall to his side. He should go back to Radiant Garden and visit Aerith and Yuffie who would surely be worried that he was gone for so long. He had promised to keep in touch during his travels and it was a promise he was going to keep.

The sound of gravel crunching under booted feet alerted Leon to another presence on the tower roof, and the brunet turned towards the sound with a hand drifting towards his gunblade strapped at his side. It was hard to break habits after so many years.

"Hey, what are you doing on my turf?" a voice demanded, arrogant and cocky, the sound caught between an adolescent growing into maturity.

Leon's heart seized in his chest, emotions he had thought were long suppressed exploding inside of him as he gazed into jade green eyes. "Seifer," he whispered, voice a tiny strain of sound as he looked at his rival. He reached out a trembling hand, not really thinking about what he was doing but _something _to prove that he was real. That something hadn't been lost after all. Everything was going to be all right. It _had _to be because he was there and that meant there were more, he'd finally be able to see them all.

That bubble of elation soon came crashing down as reality reasserted itself, and Leon dropped his hand to rest at his side. No. That wasn't his Seifer after all as the blond took a step back, a suspicious look written across his face that was tinged with apprehension. "Who are you?" he asked and Leon gazed steadily into catlike eyes so like the ones he had known but didn't hold the same intensity as before. If only he was taller, packed with more muscle. If that voice had been a little more rough, a little more mocking. If only… But there was nothing in that gaze, not a spark of realization that he even knew whom Leon, no; Squall was, or the life they had shared together. Nothing but the wary suspicion of a child as they look upon a stranger, and Leon knew right then, with a hollow finality that reverberated within his cracked and bleeding soul, that his world was lost forever.

The sky started to rumble with thunder in the distance, a gentle wind rippling through the buildings and picking up the ends of an almost familiar white trench coat as Leon stood up. "I'm no one," he said to the child as he walked past just as the stormy skies broke and the rain started to fall, washing away any tears he might have shed. "No one at all."

Leon never returned to Twilight Town.


End file.
